This week, again, EU heads of state and government must decide to start accession talks with Northern Macedonia and Albania - or not.
Leaders of the EU's main institutions emphasised that the two countries "have done what we asked them to do".
Last June a decision was postponed because of internal divisions. Some 14 central and eastern European countries pushed for the start of accession talks.
But France and the Netherlands refused, citing a lack of popular support. Will these two concede this time? Will others, who silently supported them in June?
Eastern EU member states are worried about Russia and Turkey destabilising the Balkans. This happened many times before in history. It rarely ended well.
If the EU fails to offer the Balkans political perspective, these member states argue, the whole region would become unstable. This would weaken the EU.
For western EU countries, however, the Balkans are far away. They prefer to focus on the trade war with the US, Brexit, cyber attacks, Russian and Chinese military activities in the Arctic, or other challenges.
Note EU-Digest: the number one threat facing the EU, which has to be dealt with urgenly, before it falls apart, is the lack of unity among member states to realize that the EU needs to become far more united if it wants to establish itself as a world power in the world of Nations. Taking on new impoverished nations like Albania and Macedonia into the Union, while the EU is unraveling at the seams, precisely because of the lack of unity, is not only unwise, it is pure stupidity.
Read more at: Habsburg lessons for Europe's foreign policy
Leaders of the EU's main institutions emphasised that the two countries "have done what we asked them to do".
Last June a decision was postponed because of internal divisions. Some 14 central and eastern European countries pushed for the start of accession talks.
But France and the Netherlands refused, citing a lack of popular support. Will these two concede this time? Will others, who silently supported them in June?
Eastern EU member states are worried about Russia and Turkey destabilising the Balkans. This happened many times before in history. It rarely ended well.
If the EU fails to offer the Balkans political perspective, these member states argue, the whole region would become unstable. This would weaken the EU.
For western EU countries, however, the Balkans are far away. They prefer to focus on the trade war with the US, Brexit, cyber attacks, Russian and Chinese military activities in the Arctic, or other challenges.
Note EU-Digest: the number one threat facing the EU, which has to be dealt with urgenly, before it falls apart, is the lack of unity among member states to realize that the EU needs to become far more united if it wants to establish itself as a world power in the world of Nations. Taking on new impoverished nations like Albania and Macedonia into the Union, while the EU is unraveling at the seams, precisely because of the lack of unity, is not only unwise, it is pure stupidity.
Read more at: Habsburg lessons for Europe's foreign policy
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